Irsa suggests building two reservoirs to overcome water scarcity

ISLAMABAD: Owing to Pakistan’s worsening water availability for agriculture and other uses, the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) on Thursday recommended to the government for building at least two mega water reservoirs.

The Irsa Advisory Committee that met here with the Authority’s Chairman Sher Zaman Khan in the chair, and officials of Wapda, Metrological Department and respective provincial irrigation departments attended the meeting and anticipated 31 percent less water availability for the early Kahrif season starting next month.

Although, nobody mentioned about the controversial Kalabagh Dam; however, stressed on construction of more dam. All provinces endorsed this demand. Currently, the Diamer-Bhasha Dam is in pipeline with the consensus of all provinces. The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) on 19th of March cleared the project with initial estimated cost of Rs625 billion for the final approval of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec). It would be built through local resources, international donors and China have shown cold shoulder and reluctant to loan it funds.

With the water crisis like situation, the advisory committee feared that early Kharif crops sowing may be negatively affected, especially in Punjab and Sindh. These two provinces would face this shortage, while Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) would face no shortage as they have been exempted of it.

Besides water shortage, fast increasing sedimentation in the existing two major water dams, including Tarbella and Mangla, were also discussed. Wapda official informed the meeting that the sedimentation in these two dams was increasing that would further lead to water shortage. Due to this issue, Wapda will move a case to Irsa to further raise the minimum operating level of Mangla from 1,050 feet to 1,060 feet in next fortnight.

Currently, both Tarbela and Mangla dams are at dead level of 1,386 feet and 1,050 feet respectively. Snow in catchments is about 50pc less than last year’s, representatives of Metrological Department and Wapda informed the meeting. It was informed that the water shortage in late Kharif season would decline to 10 per cent for both Punjab and Sindh provinces.

Kharif season lasts from April 01 to November 30, and rice, sugarcane, cotton and maize are some of the key crops.

It was anticipated during the meeting that river inflows would remain at 95.12MAF during Kharif season which stood at 107MAF last year. Out of it, 22.58MAF water would be available in early Kharif and 72.54MAF in late Kharif for crops. It was informed during the meeting that water losses on Indus would stand at 17.36 per cent during Kharif season.

Out of total water available for Kharif crops has been estimated at 62.02MAF. Out of it, the share of Punjab has been projected at 30.24MAF, Sindh 27.96MAF, Balochistan 2.99MAF and KP 0.823MAF for Kharif crops. In early Kharif, 13.764MAF would be available and 48.256MAF in late Kharif season.